More Al Gore...

Al Gore in his testimony:

The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, "well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem." If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action.

I'll just also say this: if you have an issue which has the potential to either (1) cripple the economy while diverting funds from humanitarian threats such as African disease, poverty, and famine or environmental threats such as smog, acid rain, and heavy metal emissions; or, on the other extreme (2) destroy the world in a never-in-the-history-of-the-Earth-before-seen ball of fire then you don't say, "well, I saw a movie that tells me it's a problem" particularly when it's by a guy who admits he exaggerates the threat, uses pictures of expansion of the southern ice cap to demonstrate recession of the northern ice cap, and has absolutely no academic credentials whatsoever.

This was really bugging me last night and, frankly, made it difficult to sleep. If there is such an overwhelming consensus among the "scientific community" (which, ironically, apparently includes economists and social scientists who just happen to agree with the idea and excludes geologists and meteorologists who happen to disagree with it) then why not have someone with actual scientific and academic credentials come in? I don't see why a guy with 30 year old degrees in journalism and law is any more reputable than the medical doctor he slams in the above quote. Was it really that difficult to find the phone number to the Union of Concerned Scientists? These are actual academics with actual credentials who actually study the issue who are purportedly on Gore's side. The difference, of course, is that even the extremists in the UCS aren't nearly as far flung as Al Gore.